California Health Insurance Quotes and Blog

What happened to Johnny and David was exactly what had happened to California Health Insurance agent Matt Lockard when he was about their age. It was like déjà vu, but it was fortunate that the boys were properly insured.

The Easter egg hunt over the spacious estate was great fun for the estimated five-hundred boys and girls loosed by the starter’s gun. Johnny and David Sprunt, a pair of brothers, aged 9 and 8, were intent on filling their baskets with treats. The chase after the hidden confections – became a frenzied kind of kid madness, within the first few seconds. But Johnny quickly spied a yellow marshmallow baby chick and placed it in his basket amid the green plastic grass and soon bent down to reach for a chocolate bunny behind an azalea bush that his brother David spotted at precisely the same instant. But when he too bent down and reached, the result was the accident of two boy heads bonking. The brothers were knocked cold.

“They both might have concussions,” their Dad figured. Their Mom was on her smart phone in seconds and dialing 911. Both parents were relieved when they realized that the trip to the ER would be covered, as they’d purchased a family plan from Matt Lockard, their California Health Insurance agent just a few months before.  First David, and then Johnny recovered consciousness in the ambulance enroute to the hospital, which was a good sign.

Both boys did sustain slight concussions, but even worse, they’d missed the rest of the Easter egg hunt. Later, when the brothers were recuperating at home, their parents offered them some pieces of Easter candy which the boys ironically refused – instead they asked for child’s strength aspirin. 

About a week later, the entire Sprunt family decided to pay a visit to Matt Lockard’s office. Within minutes the boys were relating the entire story, bonking and all. “That’s exactly what happened to me when I was about your age. I bonked my head on my friend Sammy’s head.”

The boys were impressed. “Really?” David asked.

A moment later, Matt surprised the family with an offer. “Hey, I knew you were coming over and hid some candy around my office. Whatever you can find in five minutes you can have.”

It was more informal, but big smiles suddenly appeared on Johnny’s angelic face, and then David’s. The hunt was on! Within ten seconds though, when both boys spied a big chocolate bunny at precisely the same instant, and reached for it a little too eagerly …

When California Health Insurance agent Matt Lockard was growing up, a few cartoon characters were fat, and Matt laughed along with his peers. But now fat kids are far from rare, and nobody’s laughing. Childhood obesity is a national epidemic.

When California Health Insurance agent Matt Lockard was growing up, cartoon characters like Bill Cosby’s Fat Albert and Porky Pig made kids laugh. But in those days, most “fat” kids were merely chubby, few were obese, and even fewer were morbidly obese. “I watched Fat Albert and Porky Pig and Miss Piggy and the Muppets, and they made me laugh,” explains California Health Insurance agent Matt Lockard with a hint of nostalgia in his voice, “I’m not sure I even knew any really fat kids when I was a boy, and in any case, we all exercised and played sports along with watching TV. I might have played a little Pac Man as a teenager, but not for hours and hours like a lot of the kids today. There was a balance generally speaking.”  The operative word is “was.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 19 percent of American children (over 10 million) 6-19 years old are overweight or obese – a number that has more than tripled since 1980 when Matt was growing up. In addition, over the past three decades the childhood obesity rate for preschool children aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years has more than doubled, and studies have shown that overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults.

“The repercussions of childhood obesity certainly impact the health insurance industry,” Lockard asserts, “along with a lack of preventative care and emphasis, obesity in general and childhood obesity in particular are major factors bringing up the cost of U.S. health care.”

Experts and Lockard are in agreement that inactivity and poor eating habits contribute greatly to obesity’s prevalence and recent rise to epidemic status, and the trends are getting worse, not better. “They eat fast food and junk food primarily, and are way too sedentary,” Lockard argues, “it’s a national tragedy that’s just beginning to be scrutinized.”

Obesity-related diseases such as Type 2 diabetes are already assuming epidemic proportions along with the obesity itself, with pediatric diabetes increasing as much as 60% since 1995. As adults, these health issues experienced in childhood account for “more than half of all hospitalizations,” according to Lockard. Yet despite these grim statistics, “That’s not where politicians place their emphasis,” Lockard concludes.

Morticia Jackson knew that she was going to die someday. About six months prior to her demise, she walked into the office of Matt Lockard, a California Health Insurance agent, to buy a Final Expense life insurance policy, with her family in mind. Her family wasn’t so typical, but her gesture will not soon be forgotten.

Luis from Los Angeles Mission.

The homeless population in and around Los Angeles knew her only as “Grandmomma” as she preferred to be called. But Morticia Jackson was no mere ancient crone who’d once had a traditional family. A wealthy woman, her last relative, a 62-year-old grand-niece, had preceded her in death some six years before, when Morticia had already achieved the venerable age of 105. That’s when the very old woman, still in excellent health, decided to volunteer to help the homeless. No mere bag lady, she brought bags of food and clothing to the numerous shelters, making the rounds. She also cooked meals and scrubbed floors, and referred to this last stage of her life as “my exciting new career.”

“Don’t you have a family?” she’d often be asked.

“Nope,” she’d reply, “I did. They’re dead.”

She had made the acquaintance of California Health Insurance agent Matt Lockard, and had purchased from him any health coverage she might need in case she became ill. But it turned out to be just a precaution. Morticia never even caught a cold. A lesser woman might have just considered herself invulnerable and left it at that, pleased with her good fortune and resolved to die in her sleep someday. But by the time she walked into Matt’s office, still with a spring in her step, she’d acquired a new “family.”

Matt always marveled at Ms. Jackson’s energy. “You sure got spunk,” he’d say.

“I used to,” she’d say, “When my husband was alive. But he died a while back. His spunk died with him.”

“How long has it been?” Matt asked, a little curious.

“Sixty-three years this Tuesday,” replied Morticia.

What she told him next astounded the California Health Insurance agent, not that she wanted to buy a final expense life insurance policy, but what she wanted it for.  Besides taking care of her funeral and burial expenses, she wanted it to provide extra money for the city’s homeless population. It would have to be specially written and comply with California law. But it would be one gift of many from one Morticia Jackson to the people she now loved.

“Why are you doing this?” Matt asked.  “They’re strangers to you.”

“No they’re not,” she replied, “They’re my family.”